Norman's Rockwell

Hey Soul Mates, a revolutionary event has occurred in the UK regarding the Arctic Monkeys' new disc, Favourite Worst Nightmare (see my previous blog). Due to the way in which the new British charts are acknowledging Internet downloads (counting every track sold on an album towards album sales and individual sales), all 12 songs landed in the Top 200 singles chart in the UK, 3 in the Top 100! Of course, on the album chart they debuted at #1, but this is a paradigm shift. To my knowledge, never before has an act's entire record ruled the singles chart like this. Although, it's not the domination of the Beatles in 1964 or the Bee Gees in1978, where the relevant songs in the chart were legitimate singles, it is impressive nonetheless. Love, Power, Peace

Hey Soul Mates, well, I just got shut out of buying tickets for the Arctic Monkeys ' surprise gig at the Troubadour tonight. I was hoping to see them, because I believe they have just released the first Great Album of 2007. Their hype didn't snare me last year. Especially when we played their home turf, there was a lot of buzz. Yeah, I'd heard I Bet You Look Good ... but wasn't wowed. Their new disc Favourite Worst Nightmare has bowled me for 6, as I learned from Bowieboy this week. Track 5, Florescent Adolescent, may be the best thing I'll hear this year. And to write more about it would spoil the way I feel about it. The Wizard of Oz inspired Old Yellow Bricks features the lyric "Who wants to sleep in the city that never wakes up? Blinded by nostalgia." Wish I had written that. And I love the last stanza of Teddy Picker : "Assuming that all things are equal Who'd want to be men of the people When there's people like you?" It's alw

Hey Soul Mates, 2/3's of RHS gathered here in NoHo tonight with our friends from the UK. We munched on take-out Chinese and had a cuppa Twining's Everyday courtesy of the Smiths. They brought our favorite flava from Britain. Ah, sense memories. It really took us back to last year's tour. The Smiths were bold enough to see us twice while we were in England (York & Barnsley ). It was great to chat with them again in person. Tomorrow, we'll do some sightseeing. Andrew is a big fan of Sheryl Crow's All I Wanna Do . I've just figured out where the bar and the car wash from the song are. Although , the car wash is no longer there, we'll do our best to have a beer around noon. Then we'll go check out the Pacific in all its glory. Here we are with Andrew aka Bowieboy this evening. Love, Power, Peace

Hey Soul Mates, It's been a few days. I kept busy this week, did you? My Dad was in town from Atlanta. Which was very cool. It was the first time I had several days to visit with him without one of my brothers around since a trip to see my uncle Danny in Brooklyn in the 80's. So we had lots of quality time. It was a chance to show off Los Angeles, which is something I love to do. Of course we went to see the Dodgers on Friday. Of course, Dodger Dogs were involved (See photo). And Nomaaaaaaaaaaaah! The Bums did a number on the Pirates, bringing home 6 in the bottom of the third. When you bat around and the starting pitcher drives in two with his first double that's trouble for the Buccos. Dad listened to Vin Scully's Hall Of Fame play-by-play on his AM radio. Which is cool since he used to do that in NYC in the 50's. Speaking of the 50's LA was cold and damp for my Dad's visit. It got so frigid during the game that Dad said, "I'm waiting for someon

Hey Soul Mates, In RHS musical news, Adam Marsland has begun mixing our freshly recorded tracks. He started with I Can't Cry For You . We are also ramping up Love Someone to submit into a competition. There is a possibility that I'll be down the studio tonight with our engineer Steve Refling wringing out a single edit of it. I will get you details as they become available. Here's the personal stuff. We all pay our respects in our own way. Me, I cranked up Ferris Bueller's Day Off and howled with laughter and sighed with nostalgia, remembering the night my high school crew went to a fantastic double feature. It was a sneak of Ferris paired up with the too-ridiculous for words Adventures of Jake Speed . Jake Speed was the first time I went to the movies and got in trouble for making too much noise with friends. Jimmy Hilton, can I get a witness!? Yesterday, I was supposed to fly to Seattle and visit my homegirl Susan (ed. note: see previous blog " L'Chai

Hey Soul Mates, Our vocal session went for 12 hours yesterday/today. It was a marathon. We started at 1 pm with I Can't Cry For You followed by Everything My Heart Desires . It was full steam ahead all day. Adam Marsland was coaxing some great performances from yours truly. I really hit stride on Love Someone (pure church!) and Sucka . For Sucka, we had a special guest vocalist, Teresa Cowles (pictured with Bryan and me). She helped us on the chorus and did a hilarious spoken word section. Adam was particularly amused. Late into the evening we tackled Everyone's Ingenue and we came down to the wire with Down By Love. Here are some photos (credit: Patty Tokahuta) of us from yesterday. You'll see us gathered around the mic and Teresa! I'm not going to post the pic, but somehow, Bryan's hair ended up with a samurai ponytail on top of his head. You can thank me later, Bry. Love, Power, Peace

Hey Soul Mates, here is my response to all of the comments from my previous blog "The Year I Read Books." Reading IS fundamental. Thanks for the recommendations. For the unwashed, RIF used to have these great TV commercials featuring a bookmobile that never saw 5 minutes in my neighborhood as a kid. Instead, we had to hoof it a half-mile to the public library. Part of that old-fashioned "get out and exercise" thing in the '70s. To be honest, my favorite thing to borrow from the Heights library wasn't books, but the vinyl of the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night and Magical Mystery Tour . No kidding. You always got a cool record carrying bag to take them home in. Oh, also for the uninitiated, THIS is the bookish Scarlett Johannson, proudly showing off her... Louis Vuitton bookbag. It's got room for four paperbacks or a hardback. There's a small side pocket for a box of raisins or reading glasses. And a special holder on the inside for her librar

Hey Soul Mates, It was Egon Spengler who declared back in 1984 that print was dead. Stuff and nonsense. Lately my favorite pastime has been picking up books and reading them. There've been lots of times I've bought books or been lent them and let them languish on a shelf or worse in storage. I might have several going at once and none of them get finished. But I'm trying to rectify that. At the end of 2006, I bought a second hand copy of Stephen King's On Writing after reading that the creators of Lost gushed about it (and his epic The Stand ) in an interview with Mr. King. That became the springboard for half an idea. In the book, King says to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader. Which means reading as much as you can. Same thing goes for music. I try to listen to as much as possible. Not to an overwhelming extent, but to understand the tools for construction. Then, on Sunday, I espied a row of book journals/logs. In them, there are spaces for listing th